Erotic Returns - Yeasayer: Review

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Yeasayer

is a New York rock group who have been consistently releasing ever evolving indie and experimental rock music for over a decade. While the most acclaimed Yeasayer album is 2010's Odd Blood many fans have a particular favorite of their many different styles and sounds.

Review By Lavender:
I have never considered myself a Yesayer fan and while I do believe that Odd Blood is by far the groups best album I still don't know if I would consider it all that fantastic. Albums like Fragrant World and All Hour Cymbals have some good ideas and even a few decent songs each but my expectations going into this project were basically nonexistent, Surprisingly enough Yeasayer manage to deliver just under half an hour of simple but effective synth and indie pop tunes that usually do a pretty good job of filling time with sweet hooks and dancy melodies. 

For as short of an album this is the band chose to release four singles of varying quality leading up to this things release. The first of which was I'll Kiss You Tonight which doesn't do a whole lot to stand out musically and serves as a decent little catchy tune. What I like quite a bit about this song are the lyrics and storytelling as it is truly a love song to behold. Equal parts flirtatious and degenerate the track is interesting lyrically if nothing else and a pretty solid piece of the record. I wasn't quite so enamored with the second single and the albums closing track Fluttering In The Floodlights which features a tolerable blend of keys and drums played too soft to be truly appreciated. The refrain in this track isn't very catchy at all and I don't really see why it was released as a single or why it was made the closing song here as it is one of the weakest. 

The third single was Let Me Listen In On You and it also disappointed me with its soft and breathless guitars hanging loosely over some sugary sweet vocals. The track doesn't really do anything to stand out and its bad mix of overproduced elements is a total turn off. Thankfully the fourth and final single was far and away my favorite and one of my favorite songs here period. Ecstatic Baby gets the full on title track treatment and bangs WAY harder than anything I anticipated hearing on this album. The song has a killer bassline which mixes with some glistening keys in the background, all before a silky smooth hook that is catchy as hell and features some excellent high pitched singing. Everything here is great and this may be the best Yeasayer song I've heard since Odd Blood. 

The rest of the tracks here tend to mirror the singles with some inconsistent tracks, some that try their best to just blend in, and a few pleasant surprises. Crack A Smile is a song with a decent tune at its core but it gets totally lost in the bells and whistles. The hook has some 70s rock inspired vocal harmonizing but the track shoots itself in the foot with an underwhelming instrumental that is busy but with no purpose and pulls away from what makes the track good. Blue Skies Dandelions is a lowkey tune that totally misses on its refrain and while the dreamy and distant background vocals sound great the song doesn't have much to go off of and fades out at the end without making much of any impression. 

The rest of the tracks here either try to blend in and do so effectively like 24 Hour Hateful Live or are a touch more interesting. Ohm Death is probably the best song in the second half and has some haunted house keys and a shady refrain that emotes quite a bit and makes the song dramatic and catchy. Finally the intro track People I Loved is a bouncy and completely effective indie pop tune that absolutely begs to be danced to and delivers a killer hook that is fun and bright and helps get the record off to a great start. 

Yeasayer has been a little bit disappointing for the better part of this decade but I was surprised to find myself pleased with this record and I think the idea of stripping it back to basics is something the band should continue to pursue. Even though I wasn't head over heels in love with this record there is a lot of potential here and I'd like to see the band improve on this sound in the future with a more fleshed out record. 6/10

Best Track: Ecstatic Baby

For more indie pop check out my review of Silversun Pickups' Widnow's Weeds here.

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